Born in Washington, Maureen Dowd began her journalism career in 1974 as an editorial assistant for The Washington Star, where she later became a sports columnist, metropolitan reporter and feature writer. From there she went to Times magazine, then moved to The Times's Washington bureau in 1986 to cover politics. She has covered seven presidential campaigns and served as a White House correspondent. In 1995 she became a columnist for The New York Times Op-Ed page and in 1999 won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary.

In addition to her two New York Times bestsellers, Bushworld and Are Men Necessary?, Dowd has written for GQ, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, Mademoiselle, Sports Illustrated and others.